---
title: "Short-tailed Shearwater"
description: "Ardenna tenuirostris — Birds. The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird both in early Australia and in New Zealand, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/short-tailed-shearwater
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Short-tailed Shearwater

> Ardenna tenuirostris — Birds. The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird both in early Australia and in New Zealand, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested.

- Scientific name: *Ardenna tenuirostris*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `sea` (Sea & coast)
- iNaturalist observations: 2903
- Wikidata: [Q27074605](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q27074605)
- iNaturalist taxon: [475116](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/475116)

## Names

- en: Short-tailed Shearwater
- de: Kurzschwanzsturmtaucher
- es: Pardela cola corta
- fr: Puffin à bec grêle
- it: Berta codacorta
- pt: Pardela-de-cauda-curta
- pl: Burzyk cienkodzioby

## Countries with the most observations

AU (907), US (257), RU (130), CA (112), NZ (50), JP (39), HK (15), MY (11), KR (8), CN (4), IN (4), SG (4)

## Summary

The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (Ardenna tenuirostris), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird both in early Australia and in New Zealand, is the most abundant seabird species in Australian waters, and is one of the few Australian native birds in which the chicks are commercially harvested. It is a migratory species that breeds mainly on small islands in Bass Strait and Tasmania and migrates to the Northern Hemisphere for the boreal summer.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-tailed_shearwater

## Photo

![Short-tailed Shearwater](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/short-tailed-shearwater/medium.jpg)

Photo: Dario Taraborelli · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/93002610

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/short-tailed-shearwater?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).